Talk:Howard Knox
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First wife
[edit]Convincing that what FamilySearch says, that Knox married on 1 June 1891, in Oxfordshire, Alice Grant Hobbs, is correct. Because it checks out as a Headington-registered marriage fort Q2 1891 on Freebmd, {{Cite web|url=https://www.freebmd.org.uk/cgi/information.pl?cite=ax%2F%2FJAM8iGKIP58eMHrk%2Fw&scan=1|title=Index entry|accessdate=12 May 2026|work=FreeBMD|publisher=ONS}} and {{Cite web|url=https://www.freebmd.org.uk/cgi/information.pl?cite=NIi12B09i2qxtm%2BNqlx19w&scan=1|title=Index entry|accessdate=12 May 2026|work=FreeBMD|publisher=ONS}} Also very plausible that she was the sister of Rev. Francis Walter Hobbs given that Knox and Hobbs overlapped at Oxford. Charles Matthews (talk) 15:50, 12 May 2026 (UTC)
Now the death of Alice G Knox is registered at Headington in Q1 1930. The inconsistency this throws up is that her age at death is given as 59. On the basis of FamilySearch's birth date of 1855, that would be badly out: it would imply a birth date around 1870, and so a date on marriage of around 20. Which would not rule it out, though. Charles Matthews (talk) 16:00, 12 May 2026 (UTC)
On the other hand, Freebmd gives the birth of Alice Grant Hobbs, registered at Alverstoke, as Q2 1855. {{Cite web|url=https://www.freebmd.org.uk/cgi/information.pl?cite=qIkgEiLv%2BD9ngY3%2FhFN82Q&scan=1|title=Index entry|accessdate=13 May 2026|work=FreeBMD|publisher=ONS}} Charles Matthews (talk) 04:04, 13 May 2026 (UTC)
Well, certainly Knox married in 1891, the year in which his army career came to a stop. It is quite possible that he married an older woman at this time: Alice Grant Hobbs was the daughter of Benjamin Hobbs (died 1884), a wine merchant and/or brewer, of Alverstoke, Upper Clapton, Notting Hill and then 45, The Avenue, Kew Gardens. He had eight children, it seems, but mostly they died young. She probably had a fortune to bring to the marriage On this basis, we have just to reckon with the recorded date of death being wrong.
Captain and Mrs. H. V. Knox appear in newspaper reports, for example on Malta in 1903; so the Dictionary of Twentieth-Century British Philosophers article is clearly enough wrong to say that Knox was unmarried at the period. They attended the funeral in 1912 for the Wolvercote RFC crash victims. The apparent reticence about newspaper notices of family events is not explained. Charles Matthews (talk) 07:04, 13 May 2026 (UTC)
Farfan family
[edit]FamilySearch gives Marcelina Farfan as Knox's mother. The Farfan family were Spanish settlers and cocoa planters on Trinidad, at St. Joseph, with estates on the Oropouche River. See for example https://www.ucl.ac.uk/lbs/person/view/28645.
A prominent member was José Vicenté Farfan (born 1798), a Catholic priest.
Port of Spain newspapers show that André Blasini Knox had property interests in Trinidad up to his death. Charles Matthews (talk) 06:33, 13 May 2026 (UTC)
Crick Road
[edit]Something definite comes from the Oxford address 3, Crick Road. This is a part of North Oxford where houses were built from the 1880s. In 1914, in newspaper notices about support for the Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry, there are the signatories A. G. Knox and Mrs. Howard V. Knox at this address. This is a clear correlation of the Freebmd match. Charles Matthews (talk) 07:18, 13 May 2026 (UTC)